Friday, June 25, 2010

By now, you should realize that I like cars, and awesome cars are just a bonus after that. I'm also a drummer, and therefore. I need something that can haul my drums around. What really makes me giddy as a school girl is a cool car that hauls drums but can still haul. In the past, I've considered and test fit and drove a Magnum. The car has a good size and decent feel to it, but the one I drove was heavy and therefore, underpowered.

Enter SRT-8. They built a Magnum that had a sporty suspension, big awesome wheels, and a 6.1L Hemi V8 that possessed the car with a convulsive 425 HP rating. Sadly, they only had an automatic trans, but that's really the only major drawback for this car, unless you want to race it. The 4,500 lb curb weight is a bit of a drawback if you were hoping to drag race your cousin's Trans Am down Hwy 100, but that shouldn't be your main concern if you're fool enough to try that specific idea.

From reviews I've seen and the car I drove, the handling has pretty decent grip and remains quite sporty even though it's so large and in charge. The SXT and R/T verions look as though the rims are the wrong size for the car, but a little lowering could fit them in better than stock. What helps the Magnum really shine compared to other rivals like the Crown Vic or the Mustang (full-size RWD and Muscle segments) is the independent rear suspension (IRS) as opposed to the live axle found on the two previously mentioned Fords. The rear wheels don't have any input from the opposite side with the IRS, and that helps to really hug the road and give a mocking slap across the face of the competition. The ride gets the job done while still maintaining a comfortable ride for longer trips too.

The trans is an automatic from some Mercedes sedan. It's not the most race inspired, but it does have the poorly placed auto-stick feature allowing you to shift like a manual valve body auto trans. They really should've added a stick when they decided to on the Challenger. Seeing as they're all the same platform (Chrysler LX), Once the Challenger got a 6-speed, the Magnum, 300C, and Charger SRT-8 models should have all gotten a manual option as well. The sporty options that would've been available with a manual could really make the sales numbers go up, and maybe they wouldn't have had to kill the Magnum again. There are a few aftermarket kits to convert the auto trans to have paddle shifters, but although it is a viable option for what came from the factory, it will never have the feel and wide acceptance of a stick. The best option, for people who want to be really sporty with a Magnum, would be to find a wrecked Challenger with a stick and pull the parts needed to do a swap to a 5- or 6-speed manual as found in the Challenger R/T, R/T Classic, or SRT-8.

The engine is a potent 6.1L Hemi that makes 425 HP and about the same in the torque area. There are countless ways to beef these up and make more power with machining, superchargers, turbos, and nitrous, but there is one thing that I feel really turns me away from tricking one of these out. I don't understand how the 5.4L V8 Ford used in the Mustang Cobra, Mach 1, and GT500 didn't set a precedent when it had the 32 valve DOHC setup - that's 4 valves per cylinder! Even the 4.6 that goes in the regular Mustangs has 3 valves per cylinder. This make power come much easier since there is major room to flow through, but the Hemis (both 5.7 and 6.1), the Viper V10, and the LS engines in the Camaro and 'Vette all use the classic 2 valve per cylinder approach. This, the lower curb weight, booming aftermarket, and the 6-speed manual trans found in the New Mustangs make them the car to hot rod.

The Magnum still has its place in my garage, though. The styling is amazing. Though not as suave ans the 300C and not as badass as the Charger, the Magnum has a sleek look for a wagon that looks appealing, fast, and trendy while not sacrificing cargo room in the rear end. The interior is well appointed and with a high build quality, but the color choices are not as sporty on the inside as on the outside. The bottoms of the door panels are an off-white while the tops are a fitting black or gray. It almost seems as though they tried to follow the trend of accent panels in the interior, but they didn't quite understand how it worked. It's more of a two toned ghetto cruiser paint job inside instead of a intricately thought out accent paint job. I find it falls under the category of "Oh that's neat... but I wouldn't do that on my car." Thankfully, the problem is mostly on the door panels, lower trim panels, and in the trunk area, so the dash, console, and seats are fine leaving one with the easy job of painting over the white by hand. There are cool accent kits for the interior that can be purchased online. There a re a variety of styles that can be had from stainless steel to various shades of wood grain. Other than slight modifications for person preference, the interior is very nice and adequate for daily use.

The body is beautifully done. The front fascia is a bit odd, but it grows on you. the body lines are the same as a 300C, so if you really don't like the from but love the car, you could swap one of those on (beware that there is a head light assembly for the 300C that's really fancy and to replace one assembly costs about a grand). There is very little I would personally modify on the exterior of this car. My list of six mods includes fogging the lights, shaving and relocating the gas cap and tailgate handle, replace the hood with an aftermarket one that has the Charger SRT-8 hood scoop or a shaker hood scoop, and removing the door ding trim. That's it. This car is so amazing from the start that I would barely change it to meet my needs. The stunning beauty of this car doesn't need my assistance to make it turn heads and cause envy.

This car is so perfect for what I need and stifles most thoughts of dropping loads of money into it to "fix" errors I feel were made in the initial design because it is so right on the money. I would be happy finding an SRT-8 to buy (it has to be black) and just adding a hood, move the sub, paddle shift kit, and exhaust cut-outs. I could drive that for a long time before I got tired of it and needed to switch to something new. It's cool looking and fits my drums and three people too!

Friday, June 18, 2010

Ok, so here's one that I've been piecing together for a while that I might actually try to do in time. I would like to find a cheap '05-'09 Mustang to hot rod and probably race.

I would preferably start with a salvage title car. I'm hoping to find a repairable '08-'09 GT500 that somebody tagged in the back. I would get the main damage fixed, and then start trimming weight. I found doors, front fenders, trunk, and a hood out of dry carbon for this style Mustang. I would also try to find side skirts, bumpers, and possibly a carbon roof too, but the glass roof that they have occasionally is pretty cool too, so I might add one of those. I would most likely put on a GT500 KR hood, but I'm not opposed to the Eleanor style, a 2-2.5" cowl hood, the retro Boss 429 hood, or the Cobra Jet hood. I might be swayed to use the front fascia from an aftermarket place too. I would probably go with black and the matte black racing stripes, but the color choices for such a car are limitless as far as nicely appropriated colors.

I would try to thin down the interior to remove weight, but I want to maintain a comfortable, stylish, usable interior because this won't be a strictly track car. I'm definitely going to drive this on the streets too. I would redo the interior in a showy, street race style that would be flashy and have accent panels and lights. I would have to add a kickin' stereo and a roll bar, but I would avoid anything that limits use too much. I would also like to have comfy custom leather seats, but I'd try to save on weight as much as I can. I would also add sound deadening foam under the carpet for the sake of any hopeful female passengers that would want to accompany me. I'd also tint the windows nice and dark because I don't like being watched while I drive by people I'd be passing.

I would most likely go with the Rousch suspension setup or something that might be a hybrid of that - maybe switch some parts out of the set they use. I want something comfortable to drive down the city streets, but yet stiff enough to do road racing or autocross. I really like the GT500 KR rims, but they are really heavy. I'd like to find a place that could make similar ones that would be lighter. The look they give is awesome on the KRs or the Super Snake. The jury is still out on brake systems for such a vehicle, but there is plenty of time to research before I have the money for something like this. Cooper made some special tires for the 2010 Rousch 427R. I think they are the RS3. Yeah, those with a spare set of drag radials for the rear on Saturday night. I also read that you can save almost 22 or 44 pounds by switching driveshafts to a one piece unit. I think they used a carbon fiber one, but whatever is the strongest and still lighter than stock is good with me. I'm not sure what I'd do to the rear end, but I'd definitely want an LSD with a ratio in the mid 3's or maybe a 3.73 or something close.

I read an article in a Car Craft magazine where there's a guy in MN with an '07 GT500 that cranks out around 1000 RWHP with the stock 5.4L 4 valve, a mild cam, a twin screw blower, and a 100 or 150 HP shot of nitrous. He also had a company go through the stock Tremec 6-speed and make it more happy with t's new job description. The Shelbys are closing in on 4,000 pounds in curb weight, but if a guy were to replicate the drive train from that car with an aluminum block and implement the previous diet to the chassis, There may be a chance of dropping down towards 3,000. If I remember correctly, the Shelbys are around 3,800 pounds, but the stock GTs are only about 3,500 pounds. Granted the glass roof weighs more, if used, and the roll bar will add weight, but even if you could simply maintain the 3,500 pound weight of a GT with the power of a Super Snake, that could be a wicked combo on the track and the road on Friday nights.

The best 'Stang for the job would be a Fox, '74+ or the first generation due to the 2,500 pound weight, but the S197 'Stang is superior in strength to the Fox, looks worlds better than the '74+, and has better creature comforts than a '6?. I would say that if you wanted a sweet ride with effective killing power, go with this setup in either a new S197 or a '69 or '70. Either one will lose cops, competition, and tires while gaining fuel bills, amazement, respect, and lewd women. Then you just have to drive home to your mansion on the shoreline and have your hot assistant show her out in the morning while you work on your '32 Model B [another good option for this motor if you don't mind the car not fitting the time period and it trying to kill you every time you punch the gas].

So, the next post is about an idea I had for a K-car buildup, but i got to thinking while I was writing that I should put into writing the reasons I like my old K so much and good memories I had with it.

It belonged to a lawn mowing account of ours, and I always liked the size and how it looked. I was probably about 13 at the time. [Note: I got the Maverick when I was 14, but this was before that came into the picture] Dad borrowed it to go meet the rest of us on vacation in Caloma, Wi [sp?]. He had been working and couldn't take the whole time off, and he didn't probably want to be there the whole time since we were on vacation with my mom's family, who weren't the nicest to him. His car also had problems that week after we left, which is why he arranged to use it. I found out later that he had made an agreement with the owner to let us have the car for $400 worth of lawn mowing, so it was basically free. The front seat sat like a couch, and I loved riding in it. The suspension just seemed to float; little did I know the shocks were just going on it.

Throughout our ownership of this car, it's condition went down drastically. The weather stripping started to go bad and pull apart or sag out of the door frame when the doors were closed. Dad had the Cat hollowed out because it got plugged, and it was cheaper that way. We also got the muffler replaced with a straight pipe when it went bad. It had the best sound with no suppression on it. If you revved it to the limiter and let of, it hd a great metallic engine breaking sound. I'm not sure if it ever backfired when I did that, but I wouldn't be surprised if it had. We put, as my dad called them, "rubber snubbers" in the rear coil springs to help re-level the rear end of the car. It got close, but never really got back to the height it was intended to be at. Once, Dad was washing the car in one of those do-it-yourself car washes, and the water pressure blew the pinstripe off the driver's door. We both stood amazed at what had just happened, but it was just a sticker to begin with. Dad used the car on the mail route until he let me take it to high school at the beginning of junior year. That made the car get completely filled with dust.

I don't remember how it worked, but I drove that and an '86 [oddly enough] Taurus wagon to school that year. It was an interesting year for me and that car. There was a massive downpour just out side of town on the interstate. I was going around a curve in a work zone where they re-routed the oncoming traffic to be in the left lane of our side and both directions only had 1 lane with little orange sticks separating them. It had been white-knuckle driving the whole way up to school that day due to my speed and the rain. I had a problem with always being late for school, and I was trying to maintain a fast enough speed that I would be close to on time. On the last curve before town, I hydroplaned over the center line taking our 3 or 4 of those orange sticks, which I had always wanted to do anyways, but luckily I let off the gas and regained traction returning to my lane before anyone could come from in front of me and plow into my little traction-less wagon. I was completely jacked when I got to school, needless to say. I told my car-guy friends, and they all thought it was pretty awesome.

I drove it to New Ulm one weekend for CoralFest, and on my way back to school I found out at 80 on the interstate that when all your motor mounts go bad, the weight of the engine puts excess strain on your CV joints and can cause them to bind up momentarily throwing your car wildly to one side for a split second. After about 4 of those I slowed way down and "limped" it back the last 11 miles at about 35. I realized later that I just had to go slower, but not really that much slower. We trailered it back from school, and it was fine after we fixed the motor mounts, but we had to check the CV joints first because we didn't realize the reason for the sudden pull. I honestly thought I was going to die from that car when it seized like that.

The following winter, I was driving to work in a snow storm, the first real snow of the year. I got to the SD border and found the road to be covered with little finger drifts on the edges of the road. No big deal, that's how those roads get in winter, but it was before the plow had made it out and all that, so what else would you expect? I drove along, and found that I could maintain 65 while the K would simply bounce over the little drifts; a slight counter steer on entry, and I was fine to keep driving. I had to stop for gas, and the road to get to the gas station was half way around a big curve. I hadn't gotten accustomed to winter driving yet since it was the first big snow, and I forgot to go into neutral when I stopped, so I locked up the breaks and hooked the front tires just over the edge of the ditch in such a manner that I couldn't get myself back out. I didn't want anyone to hit my precious K hanging out into the road while I went for help, and the ditch looked shallow, and I was a dumb teenager, so I thought it was a good idea to try to drive in deeper and see if I could go around and get back out, alas we all know how that ended. So, wallowing in my defeat, I went to the gas station on foot to call my dad, who was just getting off work, to come help me back out and to call work to tell them I'd be a bit late. The good news is that Dad was already going to the gas station, and work said to just stay home, and forget about trying to make it in. Long story short, we found several of our friends at the gas station along with a county sheriff who all helped to block the road while we pulled my car out via our first Windstar, a tow strap, and the now permanently pulled out, bumped deforming trailer hitch.

This car would take on anything and wouldn't care. You can't kill it, and it loved to prove that point. We got the rear door hinges "fixed" once, and the dome light wouldn't go off leaving me with a dead battery when I came to pick it up. This car started so well and so easily that we were running it with a lawn mower battery. That K was the only car I've ever seen a jump pack actually work on. One try and off we went. I continued to go home and take the bulb out to fix the problem and burned myself in the process, and I also broke the bulb in the end. Once, I was driving home from work in Milwaukee in winter, and I was coming up on my turn, but due to poor visibility, I entered the turn lane before the one I wanted. My car proceeded to lock the brakes when I tried to slow down and correct, and I just plowed over the massive drift that had been made in the median. The car bounded over it, and kept going like nothing had happened. I found out later that winter/spring that the "muffler" was broken most of the way off, and my brake lines were injured and later failed on the same trip. The tailpipe started dragging about a month or so later, and let me say, driving a car in morning traffic with no brakes is quite a thrill. [I also drove a '91 Sable 500 miles with a broken brake line that leaked like a sieve during the night and an ice storm. Also a white knuckle, adrenaline pumped ride!] No matter what I did, this K-car would just keep asking for more.

The thing I really loved when I moved to Milwaukee was that it was the perfect ghetto car. I fit in like I was s'posed to be there. No one is going to take a K-car wagon. There's no reason to. Plus the robber would kind of feel sorry or empathetic toward you if he did take it. I left the window open overnight for most of the summer, and nothing ever happened to it. I love that.

The best anecdote from my K-car days is one time when I went on a date with my girlfriend, and we were leaving the Watertown Mall after dinner. We had gotten in the car, and I purposely had left the armrest up when we got out. I explained to her (to remain nameless) that the bench seat is split into three sections: I was in the driver's seat, she was riding shotgun, but in the middle was the spot affectionately titled [female dog]. I'm guessing she didn't get it because she got hung up on the fact that I swore, but she cursed worse than me, so this is a bad excuse. I drove the car to the end of the parking lot so I could get around the building to the road, and I noticed that she hadn't moved. "Ah, I have an idea..." I utilized the body roll of my K-car, and whipped it to full right lock sending the car into a steep pitch with me at the bottom. Thankfully, she didn't wear her seat belt, so she rolled a complete 360 into the b*1ch seat while my arm was already set in place on the back of the seat. I drove away in the usual loud roar of the four-banger with a big smile on my face, my girl by my side, and I just thought, "Dang, I'm so frickin' smooth."

These are the only things I can remember as great anecdotes, but if I think of more, I'll add them to the comment section.

OK, so this happens to be why I couldn't sleep. I know it's a pathetic reason, but there were some other things that went along with it and blah, blah, blah...

If there's one thing that can describe what I want out of a car, there isn't. Take 2: If there were a short list of thigns I want out of a car, it's power, agility, durability, style, and the surprise factor. The first cr I got was a '74 Maverick sedan, and I wanted to put in a V8 and have it look like a Granny car so it had a great sleeper look. I never got that project done, but I moved up into a '64 Fairlane wagon with a 289, C-4 Cruise-O-Matic, and what I think were 4.11 gears out back. The sleeper style was somewhat lost on this one, though, because it had 2" dual exhaust with glass packs, but it was awesome. There have been several ideas I've had that would fall into the sleeper category, and this is definitely one of them.

I used to drive a '86 Plymouth Reliant K SE wagon with a 2.5L I4, 3-speed auto, dual dust-ridden cloth bench seats, crappy stock radio, rusted out rockers and read quarters, dead suspension, over-sized tires, useless trailer hitch, disintegrated weather stripping, broken A/C, Adam Sandler's fabled seat spring, hollowed out cat., straight piped, and a non-functioning tailgate latch. It was either open and flapping in the wind, or it slammed shut never to be opened for about 9 months. This was also due to the dust. My dad used this car for a long time on a rural MN mail route where is got about 100 miles of gravel roads everyday it was used. All trashiness aside, I loved this car. I had so much fun in this car, and could use it however I wanted without caring what happened to it because it was worth nothing to begin with. I could almost have a separate post just praising my K! I'll do that next, but moving on...

What if you took the far more desirable Chrysler Town and Country K (pre-minivan station wagon) and replaced its 2.2L Turbo with the drive train out of a Talon TSi AWD? There's an Eclipse I heard about, on a DSM forum (widsm.org), that lives in Milwaukee. It's a GSX (top of the line with AWD) with the 2.0L Turbo 5-speed that is said to make around 700 HP! Now, picture that in a K-car wagon... I know, isn't that awesome!?! That is pretty much the best sleeper I can think of that doesn't involve insanely small cars, or a Dodge Omni... wait a second! No.

That's all well and good, but I was looking into this last night, and not only would you (I'm guessing) have to rip the floor out of a Talon and graft it into a K-car wagon, but the Mitsubishi Transmissions are known for being complete crap. The previously mentioned forum has a high content of people joking about how unreliable their DSMs are. [For those of you who aren't familiar with the DSM, DSM stands for Diamond Star Motors, and it refers to a group effort run by Chrysler and Mitsubishi where they share ideas and came up with the Plymouth Laser, Eagle Talon, and Mitsubishi Eclipse. Guess which corp got the best deal in that meeting of the minds...] This reliability issue made me think, and I stumbled upon [not through that site] some info that said you could get the same power I was looking for out of a 4G63 2.0L DOHC I4 with the factory 2.2L Turbo There is a 2-door Reliant that runs low 10's on the strip with that engine. This is an awesome find because that means that I wouldn't have to swap out a mitsu trans with the 4G63 engine that I was hoping for. The only down side is that I wouldn't have the awesome ability of AWD... oh, well, scrap the idea for lack of funds, donor cars, and being too difficult (not like that hasn't never stopped me before...). Now my thought is that I need to find a car with a 5-speed manual that will bolt up to the 2.2. The website I was at with the 10 second Reliant said I'm looking for a car of a similar build from 87-93 with the A568 trans because it is the most beefy of all the variations that were ultimately just leading up to that one. The best part is that it should bolt right up and fit right in... in theory, but I need to do more research on this area of my new findings and exploration. I also discovered, a few weeks ago, that they made K-cars with bucket seats, consoles, and floor shift autos or sticks! How awesome would that be!?! Now to keep that stock look and find a way to get high performance breaks inside the 14" rims with wheel covers... The pursuit goes on. I also need a new K-car wagon. If any of you crazy people who have recently found my blog have a K-car wagon with a decent body near Wisconsin, comment here and we should get connected and make a deal. I miss my K-car so much, and you could help make yours so much better than it is now. I'd prefer a Chrysler Town and Country because it has cool stuff like electric windows and fancy seats, but I'll take a Reliant or an Aries too, just as long as it's a wagon. I'm a drummer, and I gotta make it haul the kit around. I'd love to replace my crappy Windstar. Thanks for reading and sell me your K-car!

So I've been meaning to start this blog for a few months. I thought it would be a good way for me to muse about cool car builds that I would like to see done but could not afford and probably will never do. I don't really have anybody to share these thoughts with anymore. I had some car-guy friends in SD and MN, but I find them a bit lacking here in WI. I could talk to my mechanic, but I don't see him that often. My brother is infrequently receptive to these types of conversations (although he did mention the idea of a blog for me to get this out). My friend Chad listens well and at leas plays along like he's interested, but I'm not sure how much is legit and how much is simply an act to appease my chattering. H doesn't say much, so it's hard to tell at times. I used to be able to chat with my dad about this from time to time, but he died a little over a year ago. (I'll probably have a post about that for the sake of historical documentation later.)
Anyways, so I have all these crazy thoughts about cars since I've been obsessed with them since I was too young to remember, and I need an outlet for the things in my head. I named this "Car of the Week," but I'm not sure if I'll have a consistent posting every week, especially on a certain day. I used to be thinking of a new awesome hot rod every week, hence the name, but I've slowed the rate to about bi-monthly. I'm a bit ADD when it comes to things like that. I see something cool and think, "Wow, I should get one of those!!!", but it will most likely never happen. I am trying to pear down my thoughts to focus on just a few cars that I could probably get and keep, but there's a bit of an imbalance in funding to make anything happen for the next few years, unless I get a big lump of unexpected money.
I've just completed my second year of college on my second round through. I dropped out of my first collegiate endeavor, but this one seems to be sticking. Sorry for the random jumping around of the subject here; I'm kind of ADD when I do things. I'll think of something, and if I don't deal with it now, I'll forget I was ever going to do it in the first place. That reminds me of an e-mail I should send, but I'm going to stick with this, and it will probably not get sent for a couple of weeks.
For the record, I'm just going to type however I think it (with some slight editing, mind you. We don't need to disable all the filters here. That's dangerous). I apologize if this is a bit too hard to follow, but hey, there's no gun to your head; you don't have to keep reading! Congratulations on that little revelation, and good bye to half of you! Enjoy the other boring things you're about to embark on reading. Moving on, for the rest of you who didn't jump ship while the sharks were circling... I forgot to tell the rest that bit, didn't I? Oh, well. You folks can look forward (from here on out spelled with an "e") to reading my spill-over from an overactive mind. In an interesting side point, I'm starting this at 5:30 in the morning after I spent all night not being able to sleep because I couldn't turn my head off. I found that quite fitting. Anyway, hopefully you don't find this overly boring and a major waste of time. I say "major" because this is definitely a waste of time by any standards. I apologize for my not understanding how to do this, but I'll give it the good college try. I would like to point out that this is my first blog ever, so I'll probably use that excuse in the next several posts as to why I wreck things... sadly that doesn't work with my thought process. So, in the great words of Strong Bad:

About Me

I'm a guy who loves cars. I have all kinds of ideas for awesome custom cars, but I can't build them due to lack of funding, so I write about them here. I also can't decide on which one to build first, so that doesn't help cars get added to my garage either.
I've been infatuated with cars since I can remember, and hopefully, I can actually get something cool to call my own after a while. Although, I have had a few cool cars, but they all had to go because of moves, money shortages, or having wrecked my daily driver.
I've decided to also add write-ups of work I've done to my cars and my fun road trips I take to this blog. I'm hoping that if I get enough interested people watching my blog, maybe I can either get advertising revenue or crowd sourcing to help fund more fun trips or possibly car improvements.